


I'll Come For You By Moonlight

by Selden



Category: The Highwayman - Loreena McKennitt (Song)
Genre: F/M, Revenge AU, Treat, Verse has been committed, Witchcraft, the most purple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 09:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14829815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selden/pseuds/Selden
Summary: Though hell should bar the way.





	I'll Come For You By Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chantefable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chantefable/gifts).



They hung him up high at the crossroads; the crows came for his eyes -

The air was a-prickle with thunder, there under midnight skies.

The road stretched white in the pale moonlight, white from the old inn door

            And a pair of light feet came stepping –

Gently those footsteps, stepping –

Up to the lonely crossroads, there at the heart of the moor.

 

Her shift was white as virgin snow; there was grave dirt at the hem.

The storm-light rose from her thick dark hair, a flickering diadem.

Her smile shone sharp as a knife-blade. Bright as red blood it shone

And she trod the empty roadway,

            The silent empty roadway

She walked bright-faced to the crossroads. She walked like a bride - alone.

 

She took the thing down from the gibbet. She cradled it close to her breast.

_I came for you, love, by moonlight – now, let me do the rest._

She bent her head down and she kissed him – his lips were cold as hers.

Chill his pale lips at the crossroads,

            O, chill pale lips at the crossroads!

She whispered a word to his ruined face – a word, or perhaps a curse.

 

That night, they say, those who lay waking heard a great storm passing by –

They say that the heavens opened, that forked lightning split the sky.

They say that a woman’s laughter was heard at the gallows tree      

A woman’s sweet light laughter

            Her sweet and cheerful laughter

Was heard by the empty gibbet, while the wind howled wild and free.

 

For his dear mouth moved as she kissed him: he said one word – her name.

His flesh was remade as she kissed him, there in the dark and rain.

He knelt at her feet and he kissed her, his lips between her thighs.

Their love burned like the lightning

            The forked and vicious lighting –

Bess stroked his head as he kissed her, and he did not know she cried.

 

 _My love_ , he said, _I was riding, down a road with you at the end_ -

_I was riding, sweetheart, riding – never to see you again._

She smiled and she said, _why, dear one – I was here, not waiting there_.

And Bess loosed her dark red love-knot

            Her secret dark red witch-knot

She untied her desperate witch-knot, and she shook out her long dark hair.

 

_For I knew one night King George’s men would come for you, my dear._

_I made a bargain long ago, when I still felt a mortal’s fear._

_Now we’ll walk the night like dead things, love. Those soldiers, safe at home -_

_They’ll hear us gently stepping -_

_Our footsteps, gently stepping –_

_They’ll beg for their lives in the moonlight, and we’ll leave them, cold as stone._

 

 


End file.
